Luna the Therapy Newf

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05/18/2026

It is with a grateful heart,
Albeit broken, that I share with you the passing of my beloved Luna. On the morning of May 5, 2026 she told me that it was time for her to bid us farewell. As is the case with extremely large breeds, her mobility failed her. There was no dramatic ending, no horrific disaster; there was only her amazing ability to communicate her needs to me. Surrounded by friends and family, she went to sleep in my arms in the afternoon to the sound of my voice saying “sweet dreams, I love you”.
We made each other promises when she was a puppy: she promised me a decade, and I promised she would never be allowed to suffer. We both kept those promises.

Luna loved puppies. She was “mama bear” to her Juniper and Mabel. She loved whimsy, like chaos walks and eating forbidden pumpkin leaves. Every party was thrown for her, every cake a celebration of her joy. She was so good at making friends, that many of my people began as her people.

Luna was my soul dog. She was my best friend and my coworker. She was my constant companion. But I would fail her if I didn’t mention the many individuals that thought of her as their own. The veterans and military families. The nurses that she provided a happy moment amidst a challenging job. The children learning to read that knew she was eager to listen. The students of countless schools. And maybe most of all, the children and families of the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters Some dogs love words like “car”, “going for a ride”, and “walk”. Luna loved “let’s go to work”.

As for myself, I’m struggling with how to navigate my days. So much of my daily life revolved around Luna. I have shared so many of our escapades with you in this space and yet there are so many stories of times with her that feel like secrets. Like how if you put your face touching hers you could smell orange blossoms. When I first discovered this I thought maybe I was imagining it. But others could smell it too. So I’ve come to believe it was just magic. That must be it. She was magic.

10/10/2024

A leisurely chaos walk to start the day! Luna is enjoying retirement and filling her days with chaos walks (where she walks around the neighborhood without a leash),afternoon snuggles, and beef jerky. She continues to co-teach piano lessons with me.

12/05/2023

I hope you don’t mind a very untraditional post from Luna today. Throughout our nine years of working in a therapy setting whether it be in schools or hospitals, there are so many of Instagram’s dogs, that we mention when hanging out with our young friends. You see, Luna is a therapy dog, but there’s so many corners of this world, in which Newfoundlands make the world a better place. And it’s these famous Newfoundland’s that we talk about as if they are our close friends. Some of these are fictional, think Nana from Peter Pan, but many of them are dogs that are currently doing important jobs with their families. Oakley has been one that we speak of as if we know them. We tell young children to ask their parents to look her up on the Internet to watch her jump out of a helicopter as they snuggle Luna who would never jump out of a helicopter. And though Oakley may have left us all too soon, we will continue to tell her story to everyone we can. Sweet dreams, Oakley, your story will swim on.